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10 Titles: Good Business Reads for Summer 2026

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The U. S. Chamber of Commerce highly recommends that owners of businesses of any size, from single owner /employee entities to chief executives of global enterprises that employees thousands, should regularly undertake the professional development activity known as reading. In particular, how-to entrepreneurial business books contain a wealth of knowledge and actionable advice that’s supported by the author’s examples of hands-on business leadership experience, along with encouragement and guidance to inspire you. Reading presents opportunities to learn from others’ successes and disappointments; however, in the age of information overload, it can be difficult to make time for reading while simultaneously juggling the demands of operating a business—sometimes on your own.

To make it easier for Freelancers and other business leaders to find books that grab your interest, I’ve curated a list of business reading possibilities. The books have been well-received in the business sector but they are only suggestions, and intended to encourage you to consider subjects that you’d like to explore. Below are recommendations for curating a reading list that will support your knowledge building objectives:

  • Choose topics that interest you. You may need to address a challenge for which you’d like to obtain some insight. A subject or author may pique your interest. There are many books to choose from within the business category; the prospect of taking a deep dive into a topic that tempts you will supply ample motivation to start reading.
  • Schedule time to read.  Similar to reserving a block of time that will be devoted to an important task, dedicating time for reading reinforces its value. Your reading sessions can be longer or shorter; for instance, you can allot mini-blocks of time to give yourself brief but focused reading sessions at the beginning and end of your day. You can create a reading habit that quickly becomes part of your routine and motivates you to find more books to read.
  • Incorporate audiobooks and podcasts. Listening to podcasts and audiobooks allows you to learn while working out, commuting, doing laundry, or tackling other routine tasks.
  • Abandon books that aren’t resonating. If the author’s message or writing style leave you flat, move on to one that captures your attention as it provides the lessons you’re looking for.
  1. Real Time Leadership (David Noble and Carol Kauffman, February 2023)

The best leaders are able to assess pivotal, potentially game-changing situations when the outcome matters most and respond in the most effective way possible to move forward—or not. Authors David Noble and Carol Kauffman are best-in-class leadership coaches; they advise that the most difficult aspect of leadership occurs when you must control the inevitable high-risk, high stakes challenge. Whether you’re faced with a split-second decision, when your business is reeling, or could be soon, and your mind is racing to determine the best strategy to navigate business-critical long-term circumstances. An effective leader must be able to step up, seize the reins and guide the organization to a successful landing. Noble and Kauffman show you how their innovative leadership development framework trains you to excel at tactics that slow down high-stakes situations before they speed you up and pull you under like a rip tide. Instead, you’ll learn to confront and master the moment, so that you can calmly generate response options and quickly evaluate those options before acting.

2. The Science of Scaling (Dr. Benjamin Hardy and Blake Erickson, July 2025)

Are you generating only modest annual growth in your business, frustrated and wondering why a pathway to scale your entity seems out of reach? Authors Blake Erickson and Dr. Benjamin Hardy deliver the outrageous truth—lackluster growth isn’t just slow, it’s a sign your business is sliding toward stagnation. Research shows that businesses that are unable to scale quickly usually fail. But why? Because most leaders are focused on the wrong priorities, operating from the wrong assumptions and setting the wrong goals.

In The Science of Scaling, organizational psychologist and bestselling author Dr. Benjamin Hardy and Blake Erickson, co-founders of Scaling .com, reveal a revolutionary framework that helps companies scale bigger and faster than they ever thought possible. In fact, companies that apply this framework routinely grow 10–100x within just three years.

If you’re satisfied with small wins and incremental gains, this book isn’t for you. But if you’re ready to stop optimizing what shouldn’t exist―and finally build a business that scales―this is your playbook. When you read this book, you’ll experience a paradigm shift that will cause you to change your perspective on how to operate a business entity. You’ll realize that you’ve been playing small and trapped by fear. Now, you’ll finally understand how to scale the right way: with bold, ambitious goals, extreme honesty and the true “focus”― defined as filtering for only the people and paths that align directly with your highest vision.

3. The Mom Test: How to Talk to Customers (Rob Fitzpatrick, September 2013)

When you decide to learn something about your customers—what you’re on a mission to figure out what they like and would like to see more of, or get the details of what isn’t working for them and why—the standard advice given to every marketing or sales leader, Freelancer or business owner, is to ask them. Talking to those who buy your services or products is considered a foundational skill of sales and marketing. We all know we’re supposed to do it, but no one wants to admit that it’s not so easy to do it right and make your customer feel comfortable enough to give you the info you need, but it can be all too easy to screw up and say the wrong thing—-or say the right thing in the wrong way.

The Mom Test: How to Talk to Customers by Rob Fitzpatrick is a practical guide that helps entrepreneurs navigate the crucial task of talking to customers in order to confirm a business idea, or ask questions about an existing service or product. Fitzpatrick illustrates how sensitive conversations can go wrong and shows you how to keep them on track, so that you’ll get the info that you need to move forward. Now you can reduce the risk of building products nobody wants and make informed decisions based on real customer behavior rather than on polite feedback.

The author is an entrepreneur who co-founded the education agency Founder Centric, taught at top universities including Harvard, MIT and University College of London (UK), co-wrote the book Workshop Survival Guide, which describes how to design and run effective and engaging workshops. He also managed to learn enterprise sales, skill that fuels his current vocation of gathering unbiased customer learning and taking an idea from nothing through to its first dozen or so paying customers.

4. Financial Intelligence: A Manager’s Guide to Knowing What the Numbers Really Mean (Karen Berman and Joe Knight, February 2013)

This is an excellent book for anyone who doesn’t have a traditional business administration background. Financial Intelligence is a comprehensive guide that’s meant to help managers at all levels understand the often intimidating world of finance and shows you how to make sense of financial data and use that knowledge to make better decisions and develop more confidence.

One of the best things about the book is how clearly authors Karen Berman and Joe Knight simplify and present complicated financial ideas into terms that are easy to understand and to the point. Even those who have never studied business before can understand the core ideas and use them in real life. Berman and Knight stress how important financial knowledge is for all managers, no matter what area they work in. The fact that financial information can be used in any situation is very interesting. It changes the way we think about financial knowledge so that it is no longer a special skill but a core skill that is essential to good management.  The book isn’t just about figuring out what the numbers mean; it’s also about how to use that knowledge to make good business choices. It is a must-read for any boss who wants to make their company successful financially.

5. Inside the Box (David Epstein, April 2026)

We live in a world that gives us seemingly infinite choices and values freedom above all else. We have an unprecedented number of options regarding what to do, who to be, and how to spend our time. All that choice is wonderful; it is also overwhelming. The irony is that total freedom can be paralyzing, and unlimited resources don’t necessarily lead to the biggest breakthroughs. In fact, overvaluing complete freedom can be disastrous for everything from starting a company to harnessing creativity to finding personal satisfaction.

Author David Epstein argues that all of us—individuals, businesses, institutions, even societies—can benefit from narrowing our options. He dives into the science and practice of constraints, exploring exactly when and how guardrails can be beneficial, whether we’re working with limited resources or using self-imposed boundaries to tap unexpected wells of focus and innovation.

6. Build Your Dream Network (J. Kelly Hoey, January 2018)

Acclaimed business columnist and networking expert J. Kelly Hoey offers a fresh new approach to mastering this timeworn skill in a world where everyone is posting, liking and friending fast and furiously, but are mostly failing to leverage their connections successfully—because they’re not really connections. Hoey’s book presents innovative strategies for developing strong and healthy relationships–the genuine, mutually beneficial, long-lasting kind–by using all of the social tools at your disposal. She also reveals creative and surprisingly simple ways to harness the power of your network to accomplish any ambition, from landing your dream job, to signing a coveted account or client, to successfully crowdfunding a new business venture.

J. Kelly Hoey cuts through the noise of traditional networking and provides strategies for creating authentic, mutually satisfying relationships. She emphasizes that real networking is not about attending dull cocktail parties or gaining a large number of connections online. The book is packed with innovative strategies to help you make the most of both in-person and digital networking opportunities. One of the standout aspects of Build Your Dream Network is its focus on turning “closed-door” conversations into solid business opportunities and personal relationships. Hoey provides advice on how to approach and follow up with contacts in an authentic and strategic way.

 7. Atomic Habits (James Clear, October 2018)

 Are you struggling to build some useful new habits that you will actually incorporate into your life? Atomic Habits by James Clear breaks down the process of developing a useful new habit and serves it up in four simple steps: make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy and make it satisfying. If you truly want to live a “successful” life (placed in quotation marks here as success is subjective and its definition is up to you), then you need to put in the time and effort daily to build healthy habits that support your goals and productivity. James Clear shows us that habit-building can be easy and fun. It’s not as boring or arduous as you might think.

No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving—every day. James Clear, one of the world’s leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results. Clear is known for his ability to distill complex topics into simple behaviors that can be easily applied to daily life and work. Here, he draws on the most proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible. 

The book will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits–whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal.

8. Rework (Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, March 2010)

Most business books give you the same old advice: Write a business plan, study the competition, seek investors, ad nauseum.
But for many aspiring entrepreneurs, you’ll be better off if you stop talking and start working; authors Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson show you how its done. You’ll learn why a multi-page business plan will not necessarily help your mission, why you probably don’t need outside investors and why you could do better by ignoring the competition.

The truth is, to build a successful business entity, less than can be more. You don’t need to be a workaholic. You don’t always need to hire staff (especially not with artificial intelligence powered tools). You definitely don’t need to waste time on paperwork or meetings. You don’t even need an office. Those are all just excuses that block you from seizing the moment.

You’ll learn how to be more productive, how to get exposure without breaking the bank and the value of more counterintuitive ideas that will inspire you. It’s Keep It Simple Strategies make Rework the perfect guide for anyone who’s ever dreamed of doing it on their own. Hardcore entrepreneurs, small-business owners, people stuck in day jobs they hate, victims of downsizing—Freelancers!—will all find valuable guidance and inspiration in these pages.

9. Future Fit: How to Stay Relevant and Competitive in the Future of Work (Andrea Clarke, March 2019)

The future of work is about talent, not technology, says Andrea Clarke, author of ‘Future Fit: How to Stay Relevant and Competitive in the Future of Work. Clarke points out that if we want to outrun the algorithm to stay secure in the future of work, we need to upgrade our own capability in ways we may not have considered. As artificial intelligence is adopted into the workplace and traditional employee arrangements transform, we’re heading into a far less structured era of work.

For organizations, it means re-imagining talent models, re-skilling the workforce and re-defining business practices for a digital age. For individuals, it means the responsibility for finding, securing and delivering work lies with us more than ever before with the individual. That sounds like the Freelance sector to me! The book will equip you with eight critical human skills we’ll need to invest in for a new working environment. From Reputation Capital, Communication, Adaptability and Creativity to Networking, Leadership, Problem-Solving and Continuous Learning.

10. Start With Yourself (Emma Grede, April 2026)

Start with Yourself is a game-changing, no-nonsense guide for seeking meaningful success on your own terms. It’s an essential framework that will give you the tools and mindset to unlock your full potential in life and business—straight from a woman who defied all the odds to become a serial entrepreneur, most famously as a founding partner of SKIMS with Kim Kardashian and co-founder of Good American, a maker of denim clothing for women, with Khloe Kardashian. Ultimately, this is a book for everyone tired of feeling like a bystander or passenger in your own life. Author Emma Grede offers tangible and applicable-right-now solutions to create a mindset, an overall system of thought to manage emotions, clarify ideas and illuminate the right next step—while always staying positive.

Above all, Grede offers a new vision for work and life that encourages readers everywhere to take responsibility for their own thinking in order to achieve personal and professional success at the highest levels. It’s about gathering yourself after failure. It’s about being accountable but also forgiving yourself. It’s about not expecting shortcuts while never being bashful about grabbing them when they appear. It’s about pushing hard for wins and never apologizing for your dreams.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Walther Firle (Germany, 1859-1929) Three Girls Reading, circa 1900

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Rev Up Resilience To Ramp Up Productivity and Reduce Stress

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Is it my imagination, or has life become increasingly stressful year after year? In my experience, it feels as if navigating normal life (is there still such a thing?) and being productive in one’s occupation requires more effort than was necessary just a few years ago. The bar for success seems higher and the level of productivity (and luck, I might add) required to win the race is consequently higher.

Productivity is a multi-faceted function and we’ve examined how to maximize its application from technology, marketing and sales perspectives. Today, we’ll examine the impact of health on productivity and get ideas on how to do what must be done without damaging one’s physical or psychological well-being.

BTW, the American Psychological Association agrees with my observations. According to its 2023 Work in America survey, 77% of U.S. workers experienced job-related stress during the previous month and 57% reported negative outcomes as a result, including emotional exhaustion and lack of motivation that undermined their ability to do their best work. Stress and its usual byproducts, burnout and anxiety are also linked to the often-celebrated hustle culture, whose supporters brag about their marathon workdays and insist that the sacrifice is the price of admission for attaining a thriving business or career.

In the beginning hustle culture can be helpful and that pedal-to-the-metal work ethic will propel you toward your goal. But in the long-term, being a workaholic (that’s the old-school term) can cost you your health—and it might even undo the success you’ve attained. Lengthy periods of intense stress carry significant downsides, physical and psychological, including loss of energy, concentration and creativity—the building blocks of productivity that hustle culture is supposed to enhance. When you’re constantly in overdrive, the brain’s capacity to focus, exercise good judgment and perform other “executive” functions deteriorates. Related cognitive assets, notably decision-making, problem-solving and strategic thinking, can also weaken. The inevitable outcome is that productivity craters.

So how can you improve your capacity to be productive and enhance your executive cognitive functions along the way? It may sound counterintuitive to some, but when you’re not just determined, but also realistic, about achieving important goals, the first step is to step away from the hustle culture fad.

You may be convinced that hard work is the partner of ambition and to a great extent that is true, but pushing yourself to exhaustion is almost guaranteed to result in an assault on your physical and psychological well-being. Instead, you will be wise to regularly nurture and replenish your energy stores to cultivate resilience, minimize stress and bring about strength, focus and calm control. Reserve those hustle culture 12+ hour workdays for extreme circumstances, such as responding to an emergency or meeting an important deadline. Prioritizing your health can be treated as a strategic imperative—is it not your greatest resource when all is said and done?

Organize and prioritize

Managing time is central to facilitating productivity. Strategic time management minimizes stress because it gives you a road map for your day and the road map enables a sense of calm control that makes productivity flow. When you have too much on your plate and you’re putting out fires and everything is an emergency, the secret to navigating the chaos is to create a road map that prioritizes your tasks from the top down—most important to least important. If you’re unsure about which tasks are most urgent, confirm the consequences for late completion by checking deadlines, investigating the potential of missed opportunities, or incurring fines. Another idea is to consider the reward or risk of the task’s completion. For example, will completing this task provide increased revenue? Asking yourself these questions can help narrow down the true priorities on your to-do list.

Maximizing productivity and minimizing stress requires that you take ownership of your schedule and plan your time so that you can manage your workflow. Time management is the secret sauce that will make you feel in control and less stressed, no matter what kind of workload you’re dealing with. A realistic to-do list can be very helpful as well as empowering. Even if events conspire against you and you don’t quite complete your daily itinerary, you’ll know what you must do the next day, or later in the week. Best of all, you’ll be confidently on your path to improved productivity as you become more realistic about scheduling and estimating time commitments.

Once you’ve determined your priorities, you can assess what you can handle and begin to identify tasks that might be handed over to an expert. Bringing in reinforcements is a crucial step in successfully navigating chaos. Today’s business reality is that there are not infrequently too many to-do’s for one person to handle. Business leaders must learn to delegate to a team member or outsource to an outside expert.

Delegate/ outsource

If you’ve come to the realization that there aren’t enough hours in the day to get through your typical to-do list, it’s time to behave like a real leader and off-load some of the work. If you have employees, evaluate the feasibility of delegating certain tasks. If you are a Freelance soloprenuer, examine your budget and evaluate the feasibility of outsourcing certain tasks.

Outsourcing is the practice of delegating certain business functions to an external individual or agency with the goal of enabling the business owner and/or employees to focus on primary tasks and responsibilities. Outsourcing enables Freelance consultants and other business owners to devote time and talent to the organization’s core functions by selectively delegating certain tasks to a highly skilled external expert. Removing certain tasks from your plate will enable you to focus on projects that are core to your business, as it factors in that you may not have either the inclination or expertise to optimally complete certain tasks. Accepting your limitations, something we all would be wise to do, should allow you to both improve your productivity and also lower your stress level.

  • Choose the right tasks    You, team leader, are responsible for understanding and communicating the strategic, big picture view of the work.  Subcontractors and part-time help are responsible for their area of specialized skills.  You coordinate all tasks and ensure that milestones are met and the deliverables are provided within the project deadline and budget.
  • Provide resources and authority Ensure that that employees or outsourced help will have the resources—information, time, budget, equipment— and the authority to do what you’ve asked of them.  Don’t make them run to you whenever they need to take action.  Rather, empower them and let them apply their intelligence and creativity to making you look good.
  • Establish expectations Especially if you delegate to an employee, explain the goals of the task(s) and how it supports short or long-term plans.  Explain also how results of the work will be measured. Confirm that those who work for or with you understand their individual responsibilities and the collective goal. Make sure that the goals are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely.
  • Provide feedback and acknowledge success   Monitor performance and quickly correct any misunderstandings or problems. Find teachable moments and provide training or useful suggestions when needed.  Encourage and enable excellent work to keep people motivated and productivity high.  Employees or Freelance consultants you’ve hired will appreciate that you recognize and diplomatically call out superior work and will rectify weak performances with the proper coaching.
  • Relax and recharge The first ingredient in your productivity enhancement recipe is sleep. Inadequate sleep is epidemic these days and it is seriously detrimental to one’s health and ability to manage stress.  An unexpected outcome of sleep deprivation can be weight gain, which can be exacerbated by the release the stress hormone cortisol, which increases appetite.  When we are fatigued, our choice of foods is usually unhealthy and laden with sugar for an energy boost, or high fat, or salty.  The stage is then set for taking on unwanted pounds (and I’ve been there!). As you know, fatigue undermines creativity, judgment and decision-making, productivity and self-discipline.  Do what you can to get in those eight hours or so each night.  Getting enough sleep just might help you discover the energy to begin (or restart) a regimen of regular exercise. Exercise provides physical release and reduces tension and stress, calms and clears the mind, helps us to sleep better and even improves self-esteem. Exercise also improves the functioning of the immune system and in the process helps us to fight off certain diseases. You may play a sport, ride a bike, swim, walk, do aerobics, yoga, Pilates and/or lift weights. Experiment with different types of exercise to learn what you like and do it on a regular basis. 

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Ljupco for Getty Images